Founded in 2002, the Society encourages the creation of watercolor at all skill levels and promotes interest, appreciation and enjoyment of watercolor and watermedia. Please feel free to attend one of our meetings. Monthly meetings are held on the first Wednesday of every month, at 10 a.m. at the Cincinnati Art Club, 1021 Parkside Place, Cincinnati, Ohio, unless otherwise noted.

Friday, June 20, 2014

June’s Program was presented by Carol Carter. She has done several programs and a Workshop
for GCWS. Carol is a well-known
International Artist. She was named Best
St. Louis Artist in 2000. She started
the North American Artists Group – 5 artists from North America that go to other countries to
represent North
America. Her list of accomplishments is totally
amazing.

The title of
this program was “The Watercolor Life”.
She says what she likes is the “process” of making a painting. A lot of her paintings have psychological
titles, describing the feeling of the painting, or about something she is, or
was, going through at the time. She told
that most of her figurative paintings are of people she knows and loves. She does do self-portraits, fewer now than
earlier in her career; usually doing a self-portrait every 10 years.

Carol
started by showing her collection of swimmers – paintings done over the
years. Her show Good Girl/Bad Girl, was
all about swimmers. It was one show –
two openings. She wanted to show that
all good girls aren’t all good, and all bad girls aren’t all bad. The show was a success.

When the
recession hit, she went to selling smaller paintings and bumped up her
Marketing. While she once sold a lot of
big paintings; now she sells more the size of a ¼ sheet. Florals have become a big seller for her,
even though when she first started, she hardly ever painted them. As a professional she has learned to bring
her style to the subject rather than let the subject dictate her style.

Carol does
use photo references and draws on the watercolor paper. For small paintings, she uses 140 lb.; for
large, 300 lb., Arches paper. A lot of
her shows are painting groups with a theme, such as Everglades, Bubbles (fish), and she is now
working on an Asian-Influence series.
Her Everglades show was right after the BP oil
spill. She had paintings of the pristine
water and wildlife at the everglades, and some of the effects of the oil spill.

Carol has
been commissioned by St. Mary’s Hospital in Jeffersonville, MO for 15 paintings to be hung in the
new hospital. Crate & Barrel have
bought the rights for a couple of her paintings. They print them and frame them for the
store. It has become a huge marketing
opportunity because they attach a profile of her and her Blog on each
painting. Carol said that Social
Media, such as Facebook also helps get her name out to many, many people, and
it is so very important in this day and age.

As we
listened to Carol, we realized the amount of work, both in the actual painting,
and the necessary Marketing it takes, to become a successful professional painter. Amazing!

Friday, June 13, 2014

Before we
get into the Minutes of the June meeting, I would like to acknowledge Kathy
Kuyper, and her gracious acceptance of the work of taking the notes of the
meeting this month. As I could not be
there, Kathy stepped up and used her time and effort to do the job. The GCWS and I truly appreciate it! Thank you, Kathy!

As Marilyn
called the meeting to order, she announced that there would not be a Leadership
meeting or Open Painting later due to the impending bad weather.

A new
member, Tim Biggs, was introduced. Tim
says he is new to watercolors, likes to paint landscapes and architecture. Welcome Tim!

We had some
guests – Amy Brice, a friend of Marilyn Bishop and Nancy Wisely, who is in a Wyoming painting group. She started painting watercolors in
2000. Another friend of Marilyn’s,
another guest – Margie Carelton, asked
our members if we would like to donate any of our unused art supplies to the
Lockland schools’ Art Teacher, who has a need of supplies for her
students. Her email address is
MMCARELTON@ fuse.net. Also attending was
Carolyn Robinson, who came because she had enjoyed Carol Carter’s Workshop so
much.

Our
Treasurer, Sally, gave her report. She
stated the working balance is now minus the money we took out of the treasury
for the Scholarship Awards.

Some copies
of the Minutes from the May meeting are available to those who don’t have
access to the Blog, on the back table.
Also available there are Information Forms to be filled out for those
who have Announcements, so we can get the correct info for these.

Joan O’Leary
is our new Program Co-ordinator. She has
most of the programs lined up for this coming year. Our Program for next month – July – is
entitled “Inspiration for Paintings”.
This will be given by Trish McKinney.

Marilyn
requested that each member pick up their envelope from the back table. It contains information, and an application
form, for our August Art Show, and also info and an application form for our
August program. Members not in
attendance will receive their envelopes in the mail.

We are taking a Bus Day-Trip to Middletown to the ArtCenter, then to Lunch, and in the
afternoon, a tour of the Stained Glass Studios.
The cost for members is $64; cost for guests is $84. We can take 40-50 people. Reservations are required, and need to be
made by July 2, our next meeting date.
Send check (or credit card into) to Provident Travel. For questions, contact Joyce Grothaus.

Announcements: Joan Abdon told about the Southeastern
Indiana Art Guild’s Regional Art Exhibition.
This Event will be August 9 – 16, 2014, in Aurora, IN.
You do not have to be a guild member to enter your work. Deadline is July 8. For info, Joan –
812-290-9547.

Marilyn
asked members to continue passing out club flyers to other artists that they
know, or see at other art shows. She
also asked if anyone filled out the Featured Artist form for Deb. Answer was No. Come on, folks J
it’s not that hard. J

Art Show
Chair, Carol McAfee, passed around signup sheets for volunteers for the
Show. She needs: gallery sitters, refreshments for Reception,
Hanging committee, and Pick-up helpers.
Pickup can be at the last day of the show (Aug 24) after 4:00, or on the 26th. You will need to sign out your paintings. Don’t forget to add 20% for the
commission. If you sell a painting, you
will be responsible for paying the 20% to The Barn. Carol will have postcards for the Show next
month. All this information is in the
envelope to be picked up at today’s meeting.
Those who were not in attendance will receive their envelope in the
mail.

Marilyn read
a Thank You note from Katlyn Wolary, one of our Young Artist Award winners.

Diana Marra will have a Solo Exhibit at Evendale Cultural Arts Center, Opening Friday March 2 from 6-8. The Exhibit is called "A Taste of Asia" and will of course have Sake and Sushi in addition to the usual wine-and-cheese Opening fare. Exhibit is also open 12-4 on Sat. and Sunday March 3 & 4. Diana will offer a mini-workshop - "A Taste" - on Wed. March 14, 6:30-8, cost $20 / all materials provided in 3 versions of oriental-style painting. For more information contact Diana.